GUPTA LAB

Charlie Fiesler is an REU student from the University of Kentucky, working on beam characterisation and simulations for a future green optical trap. These efforts have met with some success, despite the existence of an apparently vast conspiracy intent on preventing and punishing Mathematica use by REU students.

Although lab tradition dictates that REU students must be portrayed as somehow mentally unstable, this simply cannot be done for Charlie. One reason is that Charlie greets all that happens in the lab, from the tragedy of a green laser breaking to the triumph of a green laser working, with an ever-stoic "That's cool." Perhaps he is desensitised to the gravity of such events, having spent weeks studying ugly, nonlinear effects of gravity on trapped atoms.

Another reason is that, were we to question his sanity, he might stop treating us to lunch on his meal plan.

"Heey, we have green laser beams. That's cool."